Assignments

All assignments will be posted from the schedule page, which you should check
regularly for updates. If an assignment refers to a chapter or
section of a chapter, it is from the 6.033 class notes. If an
assignment refers to a paper number, it typically is the number of
the paper in the reading list. For your convenience, we have also
posted electronic versions of most papers. If an assignment
requires you to hand in something, then we expect you to do so at
the beginning of the class meeting. The schedule has also
all planned assignments, but they are tentative; once an
assignment has a link associated with it, it is assigned.

News

Thursday, June 1, 2006

Quiz 3 return. If you would like to see your graded Quiz 3,
you can pick it up from Neena Lyall in 32-G970A, starting
tomorrow. Neena will be available all day on Friday, Monday, and
Tuesday. Be sure to bring your MIT ID.

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Quiz 3 solutionsare now
available. 172 students took the quiz; the median score
was 123/160 (76.9%), and the mean was 121.6/160 (76.0%),
with a standard deviation of 16.81/160 (10.5%).

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Endgame. Final grades for 6.033 have been submitted to the
registrar's office and should be available on WebSIS. The course staff
cannot provide you with your grades via email.

Solutions for Quiz 3 will be posted shortly, along with instructions
for how to see your graded quiz (should you be so inclined).

Where to go from here.
Take some more systems classes:

Prof. Kaashoek offers
6.828,
on the design and implementation of operating systems, in the fall.

Quiz 3 is during finals week, but it will only explicitly
cover the final 1/3 of the course. Of course, the cumulative
nature of this course means that terms and concepts from the first
2/3 will be used freely, but the questions will focus primarily on
the material covered on April 6th and onward. Quiz 3 will be 90
minutes, not 50 like the first 2. It will be in
Johnson Ice Rink from 1:30-3:00 on Thursday, May 25, 2006.

Monday, April 24, 2006

There will be no tutorial this Friday, April 18th. Use the time
to meet with your DP2 group and/or your TA.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Quiz 2 info. 170 students took the exam. We threw out one
question, so the maximum possible score was 96. The mean
was 75.1/96 points (78%), with a standard deviation of
10.7. The median was 76/96 points (79%). Here are
the Quiz 2 Solutions.

Friday April 14, 2006

The errata page for the class notes now
includes an important multiple-page correction for chapter 9, section C.
We recommend that you get the corrected version. Note that this section
describes undo/redo logging and that understanding this topic is
necessary for understanding the assigned ARIES paper.

DP2 has been released.
Updates to it will be added to the DP2
FAQ as they arise.

There will be a Tutorial this Friday (on DP2).

The review session for Quiz 2 has been moved from Wednesday
of next week to Tuesday of next week. It will be in 4-370 on
Tuesday April 11th.

Monday March 20, 2006

(1) Class-wide extension on DP1: Because in some sections
we were late with providing feedback on the design proposals, we
will give every student an extension till Friday 5p. Of course,
we prefer to receive the papers by Thursday in recitation section,
but if you need the extra time, please feel free to use it. If
you choose to take the extension, please let your instructor know
and you must take both copies of your DP1 to your recitation
instructor's office. There will be a drop box outside his or
her office. There are no extensions beyond Friday 5p---enjoy
spring break!

(2) After Thursday recitation, the staff may no longer be
available to answer questions and provide guidance. Don't leave
DP1 until the last minute just because of the extension!

(3) Marathon Office Hours: On Wednesday from
6pm-12midnight, the TAs will be holding open office hours
for last minute questions about DP1. It will be located in the
9th floor lounge of the Gates Tower of Building 32 (Stata).
Naturally, the TAs are also available for individual meetings
prior to the final stretch.

(4) Your DP1 may have up to2,500 words, excluding
figures. Print the word count of your final document at the
end of your report.

Monday March 20, 2006

Does a B- count as a B from the writing center?

No. If you are concerned if you will receive lower than a B
for your writing grade, please contact your grader of the writing
program. He or she will be happy to help you to ensure that you
will make the B.

Writing Lecture Today! It's in our normal classroom, 32-123, from
2-3pm. It is about how to write a good design project, so it is
in your interest to attend (plus, it's required).

Tuesday March 14, 2006

What does my quiz 1 score mean?

The range was 40-98 with a median of 80, a mean of
78.1, and a standard deviation of 12.3. The
correspondence between percentage scores and letter grades has not
been determined. If you scored less than a 60, then you
should talk to your TA to discuss your situation. Here are the
solutions to Quiz 1.

I got a 'C' on my Therac and UNIX papers. How will I ever get
my grade to a B average? How will I know which paper to revise?
Maybe I'll get bad writing grades on all of my papers?!

If you do not have a B average at this point in the semester, we
strongly recommend that you contact the Writing Program instructor
who graded your work to make a plan for revising any papers you
want to resubmit. You can find the name of your Writing Program
instructor on the top of your grade sheets.

The goal in this course is for you to learn. We want you to become
better writers, and we are willing to provide lots of ways for you
to become better writers. We expect no one to end the course with
below a B average, so contact us and let us help you.

Mar 6 2006

We've posted answers to some common questions about Design Project
1 on the DP1 FAQ. You may want to check
this page frequently, as it will periodically be updated as we
receive other questions.

Feb 25 2006

The 6.033 Final Exam (Quiz 3) has been scheduled for Thursday, May
25 at 1:30pm in Johnson Ice Rink. To check for conflicts, see
MIT's full Final Exam
Schedule.

Feb 21 2006

Design Project 1 (DP1) has been
released. It's due in 4 weeks, on March 23rd, just before spring
break. Friday's recitation will be on the unix file system in
order to help you with DP1. A proposal for DP1 is due in 2 weeks,
on March 7th. Consult the schedule for the
definitive list of due dates.

Tuesday (Virtual Monday) Feb 21 2006

Today is a Virtual Monday, so you have class instead of
recitation. Tomorrow (Wednesday) will be class again, as
usual. There will only be one recitation this week (Thursday).
Friday will be a
tutorial (run by your TA) to help you with your first design
project. See the schedule for
details.

Monday Feb 20 2006

No class today (President's day)! Tomorrow (Tuesday) is a "Virtual
Monday", so you have class instead of
recitation.

First day of class. If you missed the first recitation on
Tuesday, be sure to fill out a recitation preference form TODAY.
Recitation assignments will be decided tonight and posted on the
website. You should attend your permanent recitation on
Thursday.

Feb 6 2006

Course packets are available to be picked up from CopyTech (11-004). The cost is
$29.50, payable with cash / check / credit card / tech-id account.
Since the packets change from year to year, it is
not ok to use last year's packet.

There are eight recitation sections this term, not nine
as was previously indicated on Websis. So, if you pre-registered
for a section, it is possible that the section you pre-registered
for is no longer available. Please consult this list of available
recitations and go to one of them on Tuesday, February 7 2006
(the first day of classes). During recitation, you
will be given recitation preference sheets on which you can list
your recitation and tutorial preferences. By 10pm on Wednesday
February 8 2006, we will assign a binding list of recitation
assignments for the rest of the term.

Please refresh all 6.033 web pages before viewing
them. You may have a cached copy!

Questions or comments regarding 6.033? Send e-mail to the 6.033 staff at or to the 6.033 TAs at